Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 487 Castel and Blood Harbor

Hughes sat back down in his office, looking somewhat tired.

For the past six months, he has spent most of his time working in Blood Harbor, while Alexei has been in charge of Castells.

Bloodharbor is in a period of rapid development, and Castells should have a lot of room to develop, but there is a big problem there - the population is not enough.

The island of Castel has only this many inhabitants. It is too big as a town, too small as a city, and too small as a count's territory.
Not to mention.

No matter how much Hughes improved efficiency and popularized education, he could hardly achieve much with only a few thousand people like Castells, so he focused his attention on Blood Harbor.

During this period, Castells made considerable investments in Blood Harbor. The factory's production capacity and profits were secondary; the main purpose was to ensure a continuous influx of people.

The population here is educated and capable of engaging in industrial production, which is why Hughes puts the most effort into various schools.

With the graduation of the first group of literacy students, Blood Harbor began building factories, and these people were able to gradually take on some simple jobs.

They also spread the factory's systems and benefits, which attracted a large number of free people to come.

Some were after Leo, some after knowledge, some for a path to advancement, and some for the rare fairness within the system.
Blood Harbor was already prepared. The first batch of cement was used to build the docks, and the second batch was used to build the school.

Castells's grand construction project naturally attracted a large number of people, and when they learned that what he was building was a school, they were even more excited.

Hughes had already announced that the literacy classes would be permanently free, and the advanced classes would not be expensive. If a student came from a poor family and had excellent grades, they could sign an agreement with the factory to receive a subsidy, but they would have to serve the factory for several years after graduation.

The poor boys in the slums had never seen such a good thing before: they could learn knowledge without spending any money, and most importantly, they would even have jobs after graduation.

As for whether the work in the factory was hard or whether they had lost their freedom.
To be honest, these words are too extravagant for the truly impoverished. Not to mention Hughes's factory, even those backward sweatshops in the Rhine would be highly sought after.

—If you go into these factories, you might be worked to death by the age of thirty, but if you don't go in, you might starve to death tomorrow.

Such generous conditions naturally attracted a large number of people immediately. The prince was initially worried that Castells might not be able to handle so many people, but he soon realized that this was completely unnecessary.

Even his port guards kept sending people to factories and schools. The prince couldn't control them, but he also couldn't ignore them. He had a headache for a while, but that's another story.

Castells was determined to expand outwards. If there weren't enough schools, he would build more; if there wasn't enough land, he would ask the prince for it. Ship after ship of cement and grain were transported in, and the peak enrollment period was completely absorbed.

This group numbered over five thousand, an astonishing number even for Bloodharbor, but Castells demonstrated exceptional organizational skills.

That was a really tough time, with countless troubles. But we managed to get through it.

Today, most of the workers in the newly built factories in Bloodharbor are from this batch of graduates, with only some key personnel and technicians coming from Castells. Bloodharbor has already established a basic industrial foundation.

Castells also benefited greatly. The workers who were transferred from the factory have long been replaced, and Castells now has a population of over 10,000, with a permanent population of over 11,000.

Keep in mind that this is the number of people who were left after joining the expeditionary force or becoming teachers at schools in Bloodharbor.

A knock came at the door, and Hughes knew who it was without even lifting his eyelids; the messages in his mind link were almost a string of numbers.

Nini: "Open the door! Open the door! Open the door!"

Nini: "My lord, I have urgent business with you!"

Hughes: "What urgent matter could you possibly have? If you had something urgent, you would have said it directly through the mind link. You're already here, so there's no rush."

Nini: "Hey, doesn't this show my sincerity?"

Hughes: "Go back if you have nothing else to do. We're not familiar with each other. I'm sleepy, going to bed." *Bang!*
The door opened, and Nini squeezed into the room with a fawning expression.

"My lord, the great Lord of Castel, the controller of the Storm Ocean, the leader of the Great Crusade, the Lord of Bloodharbor..."

"Stop, stop, stop. My office is small and can't hold all these people. Just say what you need to say."

Hughes rubbed his temples, both his eyelids twitching.

There must be one of them jumping out of the disaster zone.

"Boss, in the last battle, the enemy was wiped out before I could even charge in!"

"Not all of them are dead. Hunter is still alive, isn't he? Besides, aren't you a war correspondent group? Why are you rushing so far forward?"

"How can you conduct an interview if you don't get to the front! This time we rushed too far back and failed to get an interview!" Nini said with a look of regret.

"So, my lord, could you please allow us to go out and conduct the interview on our own?"

Hughes sneered: "After you finish the interview, will there be no survivors? Did you use a Gatling gun or a dragon's breath cannon for the interview?"

Nini's eyes widened immediately.

"How dare you say such nonsense! I genuinely wanted to conduct an interview, not to kill anyone!"

Who would you like to interview?

"Nora."

Hughes closed his eyes, and his eyelids stopped twitching.

The hanging heart was completely dead.

As expected, Nini was here to cause trouble.

"You need to go to the North to interview Nora? Oh, the big Nora, right? How do you interview that Nora? She doesn't even have a mouth. Does she speak with a shield or a flail?"

"Well, I was just giving an example. Actually, I'd like to interview some members of the resistance, like Gwen."

"You need to go to the North to interview Gwen? Oh, big Gwen. This..."

Hughes frowned and thought for a while, then surprisingly nodded.

"That's a good idea. The resistance needs someone to check on things and provide some support. But wouldn't it be too conspicuous for you to go there? Won't the Vatican have something to say?"

"The Papacy? How many divisions does it have?" Nini smiled dismissively, reaching for her waist to brandish the Dragon Breath Cannon, only to find it empty—she had completely forgotten that she wasn't on the front lines.

Hughes nodded: "That makes sense."

The Papacy actually has a considerable army and countless superhumans, but the Papacy is located on the Empire's side.

Hughes's expeditionary force has already built the railway all the way to the North, why would they care about yours?
If you're so capable, send an army to besiege the Banshee. That way, you'd have to take down the three dukes of the four northern territories first. Is there really such a good thing?

As for the Banshee encountering a superhuman, Hughes wasn't too worried. The Banshee was very strong in direct combat, even stronger when wearing specially made heavy armor, and even more so when equipped with the Dragon Breath Cannon.
In the past six months, my mother-in-law has made a name for herself in the North with her two Dragon Breath Cannons!

(End of this chapter)